


Perfectly Imperfect

by Mooncat99



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, “Barchie”, “No beta”, ”Archie’s POV”, ”angst”, ”friendship growing into more”, ”language”, ”mention of underage”, ”missing scenes”
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:53:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25831627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mooncat99/pseuds/Mooncat99
Summary: Time and time again, Archie & Betty have to fight for not losing their friendship or each other.A series of missing scenes throughout the tv show, mostly following Canon - but only to a certain degree.
Relationships: Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Jughead Jones, Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 9
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> General Note: First things first: I’m deepcore barchie, so this is deepcore barchie. But as it follows canon, at least for the beginning, the focus is solely on their friendship that really isn’t shown enough in canon. But yeah, the path to it growing into endgame barchie will always be there.  
> Disclaimer: Only borrowing the characters and setting, don’t own them.  
> Warnings: As said, we’re following more or less canon, so what happened in the show will most likely be mentioned here, no matter how dark it is.  
> Also, fair warning, English isn’t my first language and as of the moment, I have no beta. Hope it still reads fluently.

**Perfectly Imperfect**   
_By Mooncat_

  
**1 - Holding Tight (102)**  
“Betty. - You okay?”  
“I‘m supposed to say yes. That’s what the nice girl always says. But ... No I’m not. I want to be. I thought I could be. But it’s too much, too fast, Archie.”  
To hear Betty Cooper admitting publicly that she actually wasn’t fine was a blow to Archie’s stomach. He of all people knew just how hard Betty always tried to keep up her happy all around demeanor. Seeing her crying was something most people never got the opportunity to witness.  
He wasn’t most people though. He was her best friend. In the world of their friendship, where it was just him and her against the world, she didn’t hide. Well, sometimes, but she knew he could see through most of her facades and call her on her shit, just like she could always read him like an open book. With him, she didn’t hide her tears. He knew for example that she was a silent cryer, almost never letting sound carry away her pain.  
So seeing silent tears trailing down over her way too pale cheeks for everyone on the schoolyard to see, hearing her admit that she wasn’t fine, told and showed him loud and clear just how broken she was on the inside.  
Usually, he would raise hell for anyone daring hurting his sweet-hearted best friend. Problem was, this time he knew only too well that he was the one causing all this pain and it rendered him helpless, his heart pumping guilt through his entire body.   
“Betty! Betty, wait!”  
She ran away and he chased after her, even though he had no idea what to do or say to make this better. Only this time, she couldn’t give him the answer he wanted, showing him just how much those words could hurt. Still, he just couldn’t leave it like that.  
There had to be something he could do, right? But the principal stopped him from following her and he was forced to let her go, with a sinking feeling that he had just witnessed a glimpse of just how fucked up his world had become.  
For him, losing Betty Cooper was not an option. He needed her in his life, needed her light, her loyalty, her unwavering friendship.  
He loved her. With a love so pure like nothing else in his life. But he wasn’t in love with her, that was something he just couldn’t give her right now. Maybe never.  
And honestly, if she’d knew what he’d been doing this summer, all the things he’d been too ashamed and afraid to tell her because he didn’t want to see the inevitable disappointment in her emerald green eyes, she probably wouldn’t dream of giving her heart to him anymore.  
He told her he wasn’t good enough for her and God, he meant every single damn word, because he simply wasn’t. She was pure perfection and he was anything but that. Definitely not someone deserving such a golden heart like hers to call his.  
To him, it was kind of a miracle that he was lucky enough to have the privilege to be her best friend and even more so to have her as his best friend. Sometimes he paused and pondered over that but mostly he just selfishly accepted it as the unmovable fact in his life that it was. After twelve years, he sure also took it for granted some days.  
Not today. Today, he feared he’d lost it all and the thought alone was unbearable.  
Had he? Lost Betty?  
No. It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t let it. Somehow he’d find a way to make up to her.  
He simply had to. Whatever it took.

* * *

  
“Oh my God, Arch. Your eye ...”  
The concern in her eyes. The softness of her voice. The caring of her fingertips whispering over his black eye.  
His heart constricted, the air knocked out of his lungs.  
Before he could even form a thought, he was pulled away, out into the field.  
Did this mean she had forgiven him? Maybe. Or maybe it was just a start. Knowing the pure essence of her core better than anyone, he thought their friendship wasn’t lost yet.  
Whatever it was, he vowed again to make it better again. That moment just now only cemented the truth of his need for her. Such unconditional love and concern, just because he was her best friend.  
No, he still wasn’t good enough for her, especially right now. But he was going to work on that, starting tomorrow, coming clean about the gunshot he’d heard at the river.

* * *

  
“Do you guys wanna join us?”  
Her smile was warm and shy. He couldn’t help but smile back, his heart sighing in relief for the first time since she’d run away from him crying.  
Jughead didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation and he followed more slowly. He was glad Jughead moved to sit beside Veronica, leaving him the seat beside Betty. He slipped in, for a moment keeping his distance.  
No. That wouldn’t do.   
So he slid closer to her, putting his arm on the bench behind her so he could be close enough to her to feel the warmth radiating from her, not just from her slender body but from her beautiful all too forgiving soul.  
She didn’t flinch, didn’t pull away, just stayed in the circle of his arm, laughing. It was like a sunbath at the shore and he greedily bathed himself in it.  
Later he walked her home. Everything back to normal. The silence between them was once again easy and comfortable, their chatting light-hearted and playful.  
When they reached their homes, she turned to him and gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek, a bit higher than usual so her lips feathered over the black skin around his eye.  
“Goodnight, Arch”, she said softly and then slipped away from him toward her front door.  
“Night, Betts”, he responded as softly, but he knew she’d heard him as she shot him a warm smile before vanishing inside.  
He turned to head inside himself, his heart soaring.  
Damn. He was the luckiest red-headed boy in the universe.  
Never again would he take for granted what a gift he had with Betty as his best friend in his life. Never again.


	2. Tough Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Archie getting caught making out with Ms Grundy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For sure not my favorite moment in the show, still, I felt like I just had to widen that last window scene a bit and dive a little deeper into Archie’s thoughts there at the end.

**2 - Tough Love (104)**

“This isn’t just about her. This is about him. I want you to see what kind of person Archie truly is.”

To say he was shocked by the malice and disgust in Mrs Cooper’s words and face was an understatement. He always knew she wasn’t particularly a fan of his, not really sure why, not really caring either. But that it went so deep that she was now ready to destroy not only his life but Geraldine’s also? That was low, even for her.

How the hell had it come to this point?

Getting caught making out with his teacher by his dad, Mrs Cooper and Betty was the single most humiliating moment of his life. He was feeling embarrassed, angry, ashamed, defiant, protective and hurt all at the same time.

At first, he latched to the anger and the hurt, both mostly directed at Betty. To sink so low as to get their parents involved, after him pleading with her to let go of her ridiculous ideas of Geraldine. She promised she’d stop and now this?

It didn’t make sense up until Mrs Cooper revealed that she found out by reading Betty’s diary. Now he understood why she looked so devastatingly sorry. It appeased him a bit, but really only a bit. This was still her fault, for snooping after him and Geraldine and really? Writing it all into her diary? She had no right to do so, this wasn’t her damn business!

“I’m never going to stop being friends with Archie, Mom. Never!”

His anger dissipated immediately. Not so long ago, those fierce words, spoken with such deep and absolute conviction, was all he desperately had wanted to hear from his best friend. Also now, despite the craziness of this horrible moment, something deep inside him eased, a tightness he hadn’t been aware he still held. Or maybe he’d just been ignoring it, even more so these past few days when he knew that Betty finally had found out his darkest secret and was once again nervous about what that meant for their friendship. So he focused rather on his annoyance over her shameless meddling with his life rather than dealing with his insecurities.

The sad thing was, really, that Mrs Cooper had probably never been more right. He _was_ selfish and he _was_ stupid. And God, despite his vows otherwise, he definitely didn’t deserve Betty as his best friend.

He admitted as much out loud, pleading with Betty’s mom to spare Geraldine. Of course it was to no use.

But then Betty rushed forward to threaten her own mother with going public with how she’d broken into Geraldine’s car, robbed her, made the whole affair up. If that wasn’t worse enough, she continued.

“It would be like ... I finally snapped. Like Polly. It would prove what everyone already thinks about us, crazy runs in that family. Like mother like daughter.”

Wait what?! _No!_

His heart stuttered.

He knew how worried and protective Betty was about her big sister, how scared and devastated she’d been when her parents had shipped away Polly. She’d been in his arms crying silently over it for hours. To see her willing to drag all that hurt up and face all the remarks and snippets such a public revelation would for sure bring along, in order to protect his affair with his music teacher ... Yeah, there came the shame, not only for this whole fucked-up mess he’d created but also for ever thinking she could have ratted him out, even if it was only for a couple of moments.

He closed his eyes, looking away.

No way in hell would he let her do that. Neither Betty nor Polly had anything to do with all of this. It was his mess to sort out, not Betty’s. But he said nothing because Betty’s threat didn’t just protect him, it also protected Geraldine.

But when Geraldine offered to leave town immediately, he still protested. Despite what Betty just offered to sacrifice, he couldn’t stop himself from protesting. It was sick, he knew it the moment the words flew out of his mouth. Still, when Geraldine moved past him to leave, he followed her. Again, he couldn’t stop himself.

But Geraldine left without a single last word to him. As soon as she was gone, the heaviness of it all started to weigh on his soul.

Mrs Cooper shoed Betty out of his sight and he let his dad drag him to their truck and drive him home. He was numb, not quite able to grasp just how much his life had imploded within a few moments, while at the same time he began to understand that boy, he really had totally screwed up on pretty much every front.

* * *

After what felt like a lifetime he was at last back in his room, utterly exhausted and part of him still numb, trying to get a grasp on what had happened.

He caught a movement in the window across from his. Looking up, he saw Betty gazing at him. He looked back, too beat to bother hiding the turmoil he’s in.

His phone pings.

Hesitant, he looked at it. Part of him was afraid to see what she had to say. Part of him was still miffed and wasn’t ready yet to get into it with her, not until at least he had some time to get his head wrapped around everything that had happened.

And once again, he was afraid of losing her. He couldn’t even blame her if she was telling him now that after all this, she was finally done with him. He knew he was her best friend but Polly was her big sister. To have to use her in order to protect him, especially for something so stupid and foolish ... No, he really couldn’t blame her if that had been the last straw and honestly, if she quit their friendship now on top of everything, despite what she had vowed to her mom, he wasn’t sure if he could bear that.

Nervously, he looked at the message on his screen.

‘I’m sorry.’

His heart sighed, relieved. Disbelieving. And somehow also not surprised at all.

Of course. She’s apologizing. Probably as worried about the state of their friendship as he had been just seconds ago.

It wasn’t fair. She shouldn’t have to even feel the need to apologize. None of this was her fault, her mess. He had started making out with Geraldine. He had taken ages to confess about the gun shots they had heard the day of Jason Blossom’s disappearance. He had continued to sleep with Geraldine even after doubts had started creeping in. While all the motive Betty had had for her actions had been her need to help and protect him.

And she sure as hell wasn’t responsible for her mom disrespecting her privacy by reading her diary.

He knew how much her diaries meant to Betty. She needed them in order to deal with her often suffocating, strict mother dictating her life, to have an outlet for what he could easily speak about with his own parents or if not with them then perhaps sometimes with Vegas or Betty or Jughead. Or lately, he also had songwriting in order to sort through what he felt.

Sure, she too had him and Polly and Kevin, still, she was a girl, he guessed she just needed another way to pour her heart out.

So he texted her back the only answer there was.

‘It’s okay, U were trying to help.’

When she read his words, he could practically see her deep relief, even before she looked up, holding her phone to her heart, smiling at him.

And despite everything, he smiled back, as relieved as she was.

Closing his eyes, he sat there for a long time. Thinking. Trying to grasp what all of this meant. There was no answer, no revelation.

The only thing he really knew for sure was his gratitude for that amazing girl always just a window away. Leaning forward, he grabbed for his phone again. There was something else he should have really started with in the first place.

‘I’m sorry too. U ‘kay?’

The dots danced while she typed. He was worried. Mrs Cooper had never been an easy mom to live with, but she really had outdone herself today. With what Betty threatened to do ... He feared what repercussions she had to face now. The wrath of Alice Cooper was nothing he wished onto his worst enemy, let alone his best friend.

‘Sure. Don’t worry.’

He frowned, looking up, but Betty wasn’t in his sight anymore. It didn’t sit right with him. So he simply sent a triple question mark back. He hated it when Betty deflected, especially when it was with him.

Expectantly, he looked back up. Sure enough, Betty reappeared in her window. She shrugged, but smiled albeit a little sad, before texting again.

‘It’ll be okay. Just needs time to blow over. I started a new diary. This time I’ll hide it better, promise.’

Reading her words, he sighed. He still wasn’t convinced and there was nothing she needed to promise him. But he had had this conversation a few times already with her, so he just focused on what he could help with.

‘U can always hide it in our hideout.’

This time her smile was genuine and fond and when she looked back up, she winked at him like when they were kids and shared a secret.

He grinned back, but it was only for a moment before everything came crashing down on him again. Taking a deep, shaking breath, he finally wrote the words he still owed her.

‘Betts? Thank U.’

She read his text, her answer coming promptly.

‘Anytime.’

Her eyes searched his, locked. She nodded slowly. His eyes suddenly burning again ominously, he nodded back. “Night”, he mouthed before getting up and quickly moving out of her sight. She didn’t need to see him wallowing in his guilt and shame and sorrow.

The screen on his phone flashed again.

‘Night. Remember Arch: this wasn’t your fault, ‘kay?’

This time he didn’t answer. The tears he had thought were spilled and over with came back. But he held the phone to his heart, clinging to the only good thing that came out of this horrendous night.

Maybe, really, the only good thing in his life right now. At least he still had Betty.

Sometimes he wondered what else he needed but her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it. Thanks for leaving kudos for the first chapter! And for my very first comment!  
> Next one will follow soon - and so far it’s my favorite chapter, so I do think you’ll be in for a treat.


	3. Slipping Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Polly has disappeared and his best friends were suddenly holding hands. Why? How? And why had Archie such a hard time being cool with that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This covers 104, with lots and lots of extended scenes and a few new ones. I’m aware that in canon we hardly have any Barchie-scenes - which I really don’t understand as all that’s happening in this ep should really have earned a few scenes more dedicated to Archie and Betty, regardless if they are just best friends or something more. So hear, hear for fanfiction, giving me the opportunity to give me what I crave. Hope, some of you enjoy it as much as I did.

**3 - Slipping Away (107)**

Archie had a hard time accepting what he was hearing and seeing. Betty clueing them in about the craziness happening with Polly, naturally upset, and none other than Jughead Jones comforting her.

This was all so wrong.

Why was this the first time he was hearing any of this? Why hadn’t she come to him sooner? She knew he knew how worried she was about Polly ever since her parents had shipped her away. Apparently to the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy so she could have Jason Blossom’s child in secret.

God, how fucked up was that?

But why hadn’t she told him any of this?

He glanced at her fingers, intertwined with Jughead’s on her shoulder. Well, at least now Jughead’s plea to not tell Betty about his non existent living situation made sense.

No. Actually it didn’t.

With Betty being his best friend since like forever, closely followed by Jughead, the three of them naturally often had been spending time together over the years. But he’d always been the link between those two. Obviously not anymore and he simply couldn’t fantom how the hell that had changed.

Seeing the anguish in Betty’s eyes, he also knew though that now wasn’t the time to ponder on all those things. She told them all this in order to ask for help, so he needed to focus on that. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could think of but the obvious: going to the police, no matter what her parents thought about that.

She looked at him and he thought she was about to nod but then Jughead shot that idea down immediately, claiming it to be too risky, that this way, it would only get back to the Blossom’s. And Betty agreed that that was the last thing that should happen.

It hurt. He wasn’t sure why, he guessed it did made sense after all. Still. It didn’t sit right with him.

When Veronica asked how they could help, no one had anything to offer. Sighing, Betty looked down and he could practically feel her pain and worry. He wanted to hug her, tell her it was going to be all right, that Polly was a clever girl, not as clever as her sister, but she had a good head on her shoulders. But he would have had to pull her away from Jughead in order to do so and he didn’t think that was appropriate. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he was allowed to lean over and at least cover her hands with his own.

How? How did it get to the place so suddenly where he didn’t not just know about the important things happening in his best friend’s life anymore, but also had no idea anymore how to react around her?

The bell reminded them of their classes and they started to head towards their respective classrooms. He wanted to catch Betty for a quick private talk but Veronica pulled her up, dragging her with her to their class.

Damn it! Did everyone forget who actually was Betty Cooper’s best friend here?

Fine. Fine!

He still had his best male friend who currently was homeless and while he had still no idea how to help Betty, he had at least an idea how to help there. So he hurried after him.

“Hey Juggie!”

Jughead slowed, waiting for him to catch up. Archie really hadn’t planned for the next words that came out of his mouth, they came out like his tongue had a mind of its own. “Before, when you said you didn’t want Betty to know where you’re living ... Is that because ... You and Betty ...?” Jeez! Eloquent much, tongue?

Jughead obviously wasn’t comfortable with this line of questioning, answering hesitantly. “We may have had a moment ...”

Recognizing Jughead’s nervousness and realizing that it probably wasn’t his business anyway, Archie finally took back control, rushing to put a stop to this awkward conversation. “It - it’s totally cool, no worries I was just curious”.

Understatement of the decade. And no, actually it wasn’t cool, it was anything but cool. Only, he wasn’t sure why exactly it wasn’t cool. He was, however, pretty sure that he wasn’t supposed to not be cool about it.

He was at a loss, not knowing what else to say. Wait. There had been a reason why he’d gone after Jughead in the first place. So he proceeded to lay out his plan on getting FP his job with his dad’s company back.

For a while the whole mess with Betty faded into the background but once in class, his thoughts turned back to his best friend, with the same question that had been plaguing him before.

_Why?_

It continued to plague him the rest of his classes, him not getting any closer to an answer than the first time the question had popped up.

And somehow, that was the worst thing of it all.

* * *

Finally, they mobilized a search through the woods for Polly. Archie still hadn’t had an opportunity to speak to Betty about all this and it was killing him. So when they all split up into teams and groups, he made sure he was teamed up with Betty. Thankfully, it wasn’t even a competition with Jughead or anyone else, it seemed like everyone accepted that it was his place to be at her side right now.

Damn right it was.

But then, he had done a lot of soul searching, and he finally realized that ever since the whole mess with Geraldine happened, they effectively hadn’t spent much or really any private time together. He had been preoccupied with his singing and Val and okay, maybe he had unconsciously avoided Betty for a while, even after the worst with Alice Cooper had blown over.

Not because he was mad with Betty or held a grudge. He hoped she never doubted that after their chat that night. But because the more time passed, and after talking a lot of things through with his dad, and a lot of calls with his very upset mom - who by the way was totally on the same side as Betty and Mrs Cooper and it had taken some heavy convincing for her not to press charges against Geraldine - he started to realize that maybe his foolish escapade with Geraldine Grundy or whoever she really was hadn’t been as innocent as he had thought it to be. That maybe, he hadn’t been as much the one going after her as actually the other way around.

That maybe his teacher had indeed used him, actually. Maybe even ...

That’s usually where he stopped those trails of thoughts. But bottom line was, he started to realize just how sick this whole relationship had been and the more time passed, the more ashamed and sad and angry he got that he’d lost his fucking virginity to his teacher instead of a girl his age that he actually was allowed to love.

So yeah, he hadn’t been particularly keen on talking about any of this with Betty who knew already way too much about all that shit. And she would have wanted to talk about how he was doing, had in fact tried a few times in the beginning. He shot her down every time and then threw himself into pretty much everything else in order to distract himself from the gloomy thoughts creeping in in the darkness of his bedroom. Avoiding her in the process too.

Not consciously, but looking back, he knew better now. Which was becoming a trend, sadly. As was disappointing that wonderful girl.

Maybe, if he hadn’t been so preoccupied with his own shit, she wouldn’t have felt like she couldn’t talk with him anymore about stuff, but certainly about something as important as her realizing that something was seriously wrong with her big sister’s disappearance and fearing she might know something about Jason’s murder.

Or about how she ended up ‘having a moment’ with Jughead that had them now holding hands and him helping her with Polly instead of him.

Maybe, that last part actually wouldn’t have happened at all if only he would have been there for her.

Not that that was something he wished for. After all, he had had his chance to be more for Betty Cooper. He had been the one who had insisted on remaining what they were: best friends.

Only ... Were they still? His best friend wouldn’t have hesitated to come to him, no matter what, when she was this scared and worried. Actually, he probably wouldn’t have waited for her to come to him first, he would have just taken her to one of their special places and coaxed her into unloading whatever had her so concerned.

Her best friend should have seen her turmoil, her doubts, her smile that didn’t reach her eyes anymore and getting fewer and fewer in-between.

He should the hell have seen it!

But he hadn’t. And perhaps, that was the most shameful realization of them all. Especially after everything she had done in order to help him with the mess with his affair with Geraldine.

Even offering exposing Polly in order to help him.

After everything he knew now, that offer ... It made his chest tight whenever he thought about that.

Back then on the steps to her house, he told her he wasn’t good enough for her, and if the past months had proven anything, then it was that he really had been right at least about that. He simply wasn’t. Now even less than back then.

He wasn’t particularly sure if Jughead was more worthy than him. Then again, Jughead hadn’t slept with his teacher. Had seen Betty hurting and had done something about it while he’d been blind.

So he guessed maybe, Jughead actually was worthier than him of having Betty Cooper’s heart.

God. That was hell.

But he’d made his bed. Still. He may have been a crappy best friend lately, but that was going to stop now. Because one truth still held true: he needed Betty Cooper in his life. But more so, she deserved to have a best friend she always could count on.

The problem was, it wasn’t as easy to find the right words. Here he was, finally having her alone with him - well, more or less alone - but his mind was blank. Where to start? What to say?

He wasn’t sure, the only thing he really knew was that under no circumstances was she to get the impression she had to comfort him or that he was hurt or that she had something to apologize for. She had enough on her plate, he for sure wasn’t going to load his own insecurities and questions to that plate. If anything, it was his place to apologize.

Well ... Then it probably was for the best he simply started with that.

“Hey, all this stuff with your sister ... I’m sorry you had to go through that”, he started. “And that I wasn’t there to help you”, he added, ruefully.

Not too surprisingly, instead of chewing him out or asking why he hadn’t been there, she just smiled. “It’s okay, Arch. You’re here now.”

Her easy forgiveness should have appeased him, but it didn’t. Instead, his heart clenched. No, it wasn’t okay, and his old Betty would have given him hell for neglecting their friendship like that, but this Betty didn’t seem to care. He felt his fingers curl into a fist.

“How you’re holding up?”, he asked softly, trying to get through this Fine-Betty-Projection that he knew Betty was way too good at rising up around herself, but so far had almost never stood between the two of them.

At last her smile faltered and she looked down, pushing her hands deep into her pockets. “I’m fine.”

He sighed. “Try that line with everyone else, Betty. Not with me.”

His straight words made her stumble as her eyes flew up to his face, missing a root her foot got caught in. He caught her, steadying her. When he was sure she had her balance back he held on, gently squeezing her elbows.

“You can be strong for your parents, and Polly and whoever else, but you don’t need to be with me, Betts”, he reminded her softly.

Her lower lip began to quiver. She said nothing. Looking around he realized that they had fallen back, with no one in sight, just hearing the continuing shouts for Polly.

“Come here”, he told her gently and wrapped his arms around her. For a moment she stood stiff, but then she sighed against him. She started shaking, quietly. He held her tighter, just holding her, letting her take all the strength she needed from him.

“It’s Polly we need to focus on”, she whispered eventually, her voice muffled against his chest, but she didn’t pull away. “It has been more than a day now and it’s so freezing out here. In her condition ... She can’t have had much with her when she fled from that horrible, cruel place. You should have seen it, Arch, it was like a holy prison out of a Nobel winning drama. And she ... She was so ... lost!” The last word was a muffled cry and she buried herself deeper into him, her arms slipping around his waist, holding tight.

He pressed a kiss onto her silky hair. “You found her there, you’ll find her now too. Remember, Polly is clever and resourceful. I’m sure she found a good place to hole up in, to stay warm.”

She shook her head, her fingernails pressing into his jacket. “Maybe usually, but she ... Arch, I don’t know what they did to her there, but something wasn’t right with her. And it had nothing to do with the pregnancy. When I told her about Jason ... She lost it. I ... I shouldn’t have told her. Maybe ...”

“No, Betty, no.” He pulled back just enough so he could raise her face towards him, his thumbs stroking away the silent tears on her cheeks. “Don’t do that game. She needed to know. She clearly loved him. Carries his baby. If anything, they should have told her a long time ago so it never had to be you who had to break the news to her. And if that place really is as awful as you say, then maybe seeing you and realizing that Jason was never going to come for her was all she needed to find the strength to get away from there by herself. She loves you, Betty. She trusts you, more than anyone else in the world. Now that she’s not imprisoned anymore, I’m sure she’ll find a way to get in touch with you sooner or later.”

“If she can. It’s still possible that she hadn’t just run away but that she’s hurt or that whoever killed Jason got to her and ...” Her voice broke and having no answer to that, he just pulled her back against his body, keeping at least her safe in his arms.

“Don’t go there, Betty. I know you’re scared as hell. I’m worried about her too.” He was. Not that he and Polly shared much of a connection, but as her little sister’s best friend, they naturally had spent quite some time together. She babysat them sometimes when they were little, there had been many trips together growing up and after she got her driving license, she’d driven them around more times than Polly liked. So yeah, he was worried too, for Polly but of course even more so for Betty. “And I can’t promise you anything for certain, but I really do believe that she’s fine and just waiting for a good moment to get in touch with you.”

“I’m not so sure”, she admitted so softly, he almost couldn’t hear her. “After all, she didn’t tell me about the baby or her plans tp run away with Jason Blossom of all people. If my parents hadn’t caught her in time, she would have disappeared and I wouldn’t have had a clue about what had happened or where she was.”

Hearing the bitterness but also hurt in her words, he finally realized that this wasn’t just about Polly’s disappearance now. Frankly, he should have seen this sooner. Of course she also felt dejected over Polly’s original plans too. He would be hurt by that as well in her place. And a part of him cursed Polly for her thoughtless actions in summer. She of all people should know better than to leave Betty in the darkness about something so big.

Then again ... “I imagine she’d been really scared and confused, Betty, how could she not, finding herself pregnant, knowing your parents, especially their ever long grudge with the Blossoms? I’m sure she would have called you as soon as she was somewhere safe and had time to get her feelings straight”, he offered. “And, no offense, Betty, but we both know you’re terrible at keeping secrets. She probably just didn’t want to risk you spilling everything out to your parents”, he added with a smirk, deciding it was time to cheer her up a little.

“Hey! Not true!” She pushed away, looking up with rightful indignation. “I am way better at keeping secrets than a certain mister here.”

“Oh yeah?”, he grinned. “Remind me, who couldn’t keep my tenth surprise party a secret? Despite it being your idea in the first place? You spent almost an hour crying, worrying about having ruined my surprise - and then about me not acting surprised enough for the party guests when they surprised me.”

“Yeah, well, at least I never told anyone what I was getting them for Christmas the minute I knew what I wanted to give them”, she shot back, a smile tugging at her lips.

It soothed his heart. “Please, I was six! You were ten. Big difference.”

The voices around them got louder and they felt a commotion going through the woods. Betty’s eyes widened and wiping over her face to remove the last tear strains, he let her slip out of his arms. Not dwelling on the coldness that immediately seeped in the moment she stepped away. As she had stated earlier, it was freezing out here.

Kevin and Veronica showed up and Betty hurried forward, Archie staying right behind her, keeping an eye out for uneven ground just in case.

“What is it? Did we find Polly?”

The eagerness and hope in her voice cut into his heart and by the softening he could see in the faces of the others, it wasn’t just him. Also, he could already tell that they hadn’t good news for them.

“The Blossoms showed up’, Kevin told her gently.

Cursing, Betty rushed past them into the direction they had come from. Echoing her curses, he chased after her.

* * *

“What a circus.”

Archie agreed, not just with Jughead’s statement but also the disgust in his voice.

“Is it just me or does Betty’s mom love all this attention a little bit too much?”, Veronica asked, frowning.

“Oh, she most definitely does”, confirmed Kevin in a chipper but biting voice.

Archie said nothing, just watched the impromptu but still all too easily organized press statement of the Coopers from the sidelines, arms crossed over his chest. Oh yeah, Alice Cooper had wanted it and everyone else had to do her bidding, like most of the times. His eyes never left Betty, watching the quiet anguish obvious on her face as she stood reluctantly beside her parents, as far back as Mrs Cooper would let her. He guessed it was perfect for the show Mrs Cooper had orchestrated but he cursed that woman to hell and back for forcing Betty to participate in that - circus.

“Maybe it will actually help”, offered Veronica, hopefully.

Jughead’s snort was the only answer needed for that ridiculous sentiment. On cue, they listened as Mrs Cooper told the entire world that their teenage daughter was pregnant with murdered Jason Blossom’s child. If possible, Betty looked even more anguished.

Archie’s hands flexed, curling into fists. It took him everything not to storm forward and pull Betty down from that damn porch, away from those fucking cameras. What devil had ridden Mrs Cooper to make Betty go through this shit? If she wanted the spotlight, fine, but why pushing Betty into it alongside her?

The answer, maybe, came right away, when Mrs Cooper launched into the iconic plea directed at her missing daughter, begging her to come home.

“This is so sick.”

Jughead really nailed it today, then again, he always had been good with words. Betty too, but in another way. Unless they rhymed in the form of song lyrics, he never had shared that talent.

The hounds were shouting questions now. One particularly loud one rouse above the others, clear and probing. “Elizabeth! Elizabeth, what message do you have for your sister?”

“Oh no”, Kevin gasped as every muscle in Archie’s body tensed.

Betty shook her head, her eyes wide, slinking further away into the background, but Mrs Cooper caught her arm and pulled her forward. “Don’t be shy, Sweety, Tell Polly to come home.”

Fuck Mrs Cooper and fuck everyone! He unfolded his arms, stepping forward. He was going to get her down from there, scene or no scene.

Betty’s panicked eyes fled from her parents, to the crowd, before looking beyond them, finding their group of her friends. Finding his eyes. Locking her gaze with his, she wrung her fingers in front of her. “Polly”, she started barely audible.

“Louder!”

He was going to kill them.

“Uh ... Just ... Stay safe.” Their eyes still locked, he nodded encouragingly. Her back straightened, her voice steadied. She looked away to stare directly into the cameras. “I promise, I’ll find you. And we’ll figure everything out. Together.”

“That’s it, Betts”, he murmured, nodding again. She got her message out to Polly. Now Mrs Cooper better ended this torture.

Miraculously, she did. It still took ages before everything died down and it was already getting dark when finally, Betty was able to escape in order to slink towards them. Archie was starting to move forward, having every intent on enveloping her with his arms. But Jughead was faster, sometime having moved closer to the street so he was first to reach her. He didn’t hug her, but he did pull her against his side.

“You were great, B!” Veronica beamed.

“I agree, you totally killed it”, Kevin echoed.

She shrugged. “Thanks guys. And thanks for staying and all the help you’ve been giving me. It really meant a lot.”

“Please, no need to even mention that”, Veronica waved her comments away. “We were happy to help, right, Boys?”

“Always”, Kevin agreed. “What now? Pop’s?”

Betty shook her head. “No can do, Mom wants me to stay close, in case we hear something from Polly.” She didn’t need to say that she wasn’t exactly holding her breath for that happening. But when she looked back towards her parents, it was also clear that she had absolutely no motivation to rejoin them already.

Archie was about to offer his house as refuge for a while, but once again, he was too slow.

“How about a walk? We don’t have to go far away, just around the block or so?”, Jughead suggested.

Looking relieved, she nodded. He pulled her with him before any of them could suggest otherwise.

“You’ll call us, if you hear anything from Polly?”, Veronica called after them and Betty looked back with a smile, nodding.

Archie stared after them, his thoughts not particularly friendly.

“How about you guys? Are you up for Pop’s?”, Kevin asked them.

“Sure”, Veronica immediately agreed but Archie, with a last look after his two best friends, stepped away. “Uh no, I need to meet with my dad about something. Bye!”

True, but they didn’t need to know that that wasn’t until later when his dad came home from work. But he wasn’t in the mood for company. At least not theirs.

Back in his room, he threw himself onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was mad. The thing was, he wasn’t clear on just why he was so upset. Yeah, he was worried about the disappearance of a girl he knew since ages and lived next door to, but that wasn’t it. He was worried a lot more about his best friend and how she was dealing with all that crazy stuff, and probably, there was the source of his confused feelings.

While he hated having to worry about Betty with a passion, he usually could at least do something about it by taking care of her. But this time, when Betty was going through most likely the hardest thing ever so far in her life, they wouldn’t let him. By Betty not coming to him in the first place and Jughead, because he was always there, where he was supposed to be, blocking his access to Betty better than Alice Cooper ever could.

He hated it. He truly did. And he didn’t feel particularly good about it, but he still couldn’t help it.

Turning his back towards his window, he stared at his wall.

He supposed the most important thing was that Betty wasn’t alone. Well, she definitely wasn’t, was she? And he had to admit, Jughead really seemed to care and take his responsibility seriously.

Actually, one could argue that he’d done even a better job than Archie actually did or perhaps even could have done. After all, he may be able to hug her or try to cheer her up in order to lighten the mood at least for a few moments, but he couldn’t give her the intimacy of the comfort by a boyfriend.

Was Jughead Betty’s boyfriend?

Frustrated, Archie flipped back onto his back, glaring at the ceiling.

Betty never had dated much so far. He knew there had been a few shy moments with other boys, but as far as he knew never more than that. And he thought he knew about everything.

He wasn’t stupid, he was well aware that that was probably mostly due to the feelings she had had for him. Okay, and there also may have been some serious warnings on his side to any boy who started talking about Betty in that way, just to make sure those idiots didn’t go hurting his best friend if they really, really weren’t serious about wanting to be with her. There may have been an understanding among at least the boys in the locker room that Betty Cooper was off limits unless they wanted to deal with him the second she got hurt. Not that he ever actually said those words to anyone, but he sure as hell never said otherwise either.

Anyway, fact was, there never had been a boy in her life other than him - and, well Kevin, but somehow Archie didn’t think he counted in that sense of the meaning. Actually, the same stood for him, before this summer, there had been no other girls than Betty in his life either.

Rubbing his eyes, he pondered that. He guessed it was to expected that their friendship had to adapt as soon as other persons entered their little world. Probably, he and Betty just had to find a way to let those other people in, without losing what they had in the process.

Not telling each other the big stuff was definitely not the way to go. And him being miffed over learning things too late and having to make room for Jughead probably wasn’t helpful either.

Sighing, he sat up to glance out the window. Her room was still dark. Maybe she wasn’t back yet or maybe she was still stuck with her parents downstairs. Not that he was sure what he wanted to do once she was back. Perhaps just reassure her with a smile through the window that she wasn’t alone, no matter what. He was always just a window away.

After their little heart-to-heart in the woods he felt as if he at least had been able to reassure her of that if nothing else. He just hoped she remembered it from now on.

For that matter, he ought to remember it too.

* * *

He had just returned to his room from his talk with his dad about him giving FP another chance when he felt his phone vibrate with a text message.

Glancing over to Betty’s room, all was still dark. He checked the message and hurried to read it when he saw that it was from Betty after all.

‘Found her. She’s hiding in the attic. Scared but fine.’

Thank God! He quickly texted back.

‘Am so glad! Call?’

‘Can’t right now, we’re still trying to figure out what to do without my parents finding her up here. Can you tell the others? Maybe between all of us we’ll figure something out.’

He sent a thumbs up and then continued to clue the others in, opening a group chat. As much as he would have loved to offer Polly refuge in his house, he knew his dad was never going to go along with it, or rather said along with not telling the Coopers about the whereabouts of their daughter.

Parents. Why did they have to be so complicated about things most of the time?

In the end, there wasn’t much of a plan other than Betty trying to talk with Cheryl about her maybe be willing to help.

At last, the light in Betty’s room switched on. Not long after, she appeared in her window. With a smile, she laid her hand on her chest, a gesture of wordless gratitude long established between them.

He smiled back with a nod, very relieved to see some of her eternal pep back in her, obvious in the way she stood and her eyes shining warm once again. Wanting to talk with her, he already reached for his phone when he noticed how she had turned her head towards her door. Looking back to him, she rolled her eyes before she disappeared again, a slump in her shoulders.

Another gesture that needed no further explanation. He wondered what Mrs Cooper wanted from her now. Hadn’t she put her daughter through enough already today? Couldn’t she just finally let Betty rest for a while?

With a sigh he reached for his guitar. There was the idea of a song bouncing around in his mind and while he waited for Betty to come back, he figured he could see where it would go while keeping an eye on the window.

He wanted to make sure she was okay once she came back.

The lyrics came easy to him, not that he was surprised with the inspiration and heart of the song having been on his mind the whole day. Somehow, the songs he wrote with Betty in his mind always came easiest to him.

I wasn’t there, it’s not okay.

Please don’t smile.

Please be mad.

There’s no excuse.

That’s the truth.

You deserve better.

Another holds your hand.

That’s fine, ‘cause you deserve more.

I promise, I’ll do better.

Just please, my darling.

Don’t slip away from me.

Don’t slip away.

His eyes stared at his scribbled words, zeroing in on the ‘darling’.

It fit well. Too well.

With a groan, he pushed the sheet away and put the guitar back into its case.

It didn’t matter anyway. Most likely, Betty was never going to hear this one, like most of the other songs he wrote about her, because he knew they hit too close to home, with her for sure recognizing on the spot how the song was about her. A few he adapted afterwards, to make them less personal, but yeah, there were a bunch he didn’t want to touch because they already said what he wanted them to say and felt perfect the way they were.

It wasn’t as if all his songs centered on her. Far from it. Maybe a quarter. Or a third? Well, and why not? Betty was a big part of his life and therefore owned a big part of his heart.

And no songwriting was worth much if it didn’t came straight from the heart.

At last, Betty came back. Again he waved when she glanced his way. Annoyed, he noticed her happiness from before had already dimmed, tension back in the way she kept her shoulders back and her smile a bit strained and tired.

Damn her mother. He couldn’t see how anyone else had been able to stump her down this fast and effectively. Over the dozen of years they’ve been friends now, he had seen it happen too many times.

Before they had phones, they had had different ways to communicate over the distance between their windows. A combination of gestures, mimics, signs and even flashlight signals for when it was past bedtime and they had to had the lights off. Sometimes he missed the fun of it, but yeah, the phone was so much easier.

He held up his hand to his ear in the universal gesture for phoning, raising his eyebrows.

She held up a finger and vanished, probably to change for the night. Good idea. He had just settled on his bed when his phone rang. Not bothering to check the caller-ID, he answered before the first ringtone was halfway through.

“Tell me everything.”

And she did.

And it felt good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy, had I fun writing this! I just hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and that I didn’t promise too much.  
> Thanks for all the kudos and yet another comment! So appreciate it.  
> I’m working on the next one, so hopefully, more will soon come.


	4. Silky Hair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Archie struggles to find his role in his friendships with Betty and Jughead. Which isn’t easy when Chuck Clayton insists on bad mouthing his best friend in front of him or having a dog who has his own ideas about his two favorite human teenagers.
> 
> These are missing scenes centered around 110 and 111. Have fun!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos, guys. I hope you enjoy this one two, gotta say, I had again a lot of fun writing these two scenes!

**4 - Silky Hair (110/111)**

The universal truth about good intentions was that they were almost impossible to follow through with them. Archie really tried to be a better friend, to Betty and Jughead.

Hell, he even tried talking Betty out of her stupid idea of a surprise birthday party for Jughead and then, when there was no stopping Betty Cooper - as someone who knew Betty should have known - he tried to talk Jughead into just going with it.

Seriously, what was the big deal? He got it wasn’t Jughead’s thing, and yeah, Betty should have listened to him when he’d told her just that. But moping around in the garage while Betty tried to keep the blown up party from getting totally out of hand was stupid.

And to be honest, maybe he thought Jughead’s treatment of his girlfriend not all that great. Would he have been anyone else, he’d have given him a piece of his mind for disappointing Betty like this. And would Jughead’s girlfriend be anyone else than Betty he would have been more insistent on not throwing this party in the first place.

But they were who they were, all three of them, so he kept his mouth shut. And drowned his frustration with them, with Val, his parents and pretty much the world entirely in beer.

So no, the night hadn’t gone great so far and then it got worse. First, Val shot him down, then Dilton told everyone about his affair with Geraldine and Chuck Clayton talked shit about Betty.

Watching Jughead punch the asshole felt good. It would have felt even better to knock him out himself.

How it went from that to him making out with Veronica Lodge and her staying the night was a mystery to him.

Finally something he wasn’t sorry for, something that actually felt good. She had caught his eye the moment she’d stepped into Pop’s the day before school started and he gotta say, he was more than happy to have tasted those luscious lips finally. Actually, he sincerely hoped there was going to be a lot more kissing and then some more.

Still. He was reluctant to tell Betty that he was kissing and wanting to bang her new best girlfriend, so he was relieved when Jughead claimed he’d seen nothing and therefore had nothing to tell anyone.

And that was probably where his good intentions started to go south.

He wasn’t even completely sure why he was so against telling Betty. After all, she had moved on, hadn’t she? Was blissfully happy with his best friend. So why shouldn’t he be happy with her best friend too?

Of course, him not talking with her about Veronica also meant him not talking to her about his parents finalizing their divorce either, because no way wouldn’t he slip during a heart-to-heart with her.

Which felt so wrong. And he so longed to just unload on her. Not talking to her almost physically hurt, all those unsaid words turning sour inside him.

“Still pining over Cooper? Jeez, Andrews, get over it. As batshit crazy as she is, believe me, you’re the lucky one.”

Stiffening, he turned around. It was after football training and apparently he’d lost quite some time dwelling while staring into his locker. Grabbing his Letterman jacket, he threw the door of his locker shut with a bang. The other guys were gone already so they were alone.

“Get away from me, Clayton. Believe me, you don’t want to get into me over Betty.”

“Oh, you think you know her so well, do you?”, Chuck snarled. “Newsflash: if you think she’s that angelic being who can’t hurt a fly, you don’t.”

His fingers twitched. Oh, he wanted to punch that smug smile off his face so badly. But it wasn’t his place. Not anymore. And Jughead already had his shot.

“What are you even doing here?”, he asked instead, trying to turn the tables away from Betty. “You’re off the team, remember? They may have let you come back to school, but they will never let you back onto the team. We won’t allow it.” He smiled haughtily. “Besides you being a sick bastard - we just don’t need you. Turns out, you’ve never been all that great and we win much more easily without having to work around your ego.”

The smug smile vanished, replaced by something nasty. “Careful, Andrews. That high horse your sitting on is easily cut down.”

He shrugged. “Try it. It won’t get you the respect from anyone back, Chuck. You’re scum and the entire school knows it now.”

Chuck pushed him against the locker. “Then I got nothing to lose. But be sure, I will drag that little whore of yours down with me. First, I’ll prove to everyone what a crazy bitch she is. Then I’ll fuck her so hard she’ll forget she ever knew you.”

Enough was enough. One could have only so much patience. Pushing back, he moved forward and twisted them to slam Chuck up against the locker, holding him there. “Listen carefully, moron: Don’t you - Ever! - speak about Betty or any other girl like that again. In fact, don’t even breathe her name ever again.”

“Or what? You gonna beat me up? You?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Believe me, you don’t want to test me.”

“Boy, I’m looking forward to taste the pussy that has you so wrapped around her little finger.”

Red, hot anger engulfed him and the next moment, Chuck laid at his feet, his lip split and bloody. He probably would have followed through with a second punch but a voice cut through the red haze, stopping him.

“What’s going on here?” Reggie stood in the doorway, eyebrows raised. Glancing at Chuck, he narrowed his eyes. “Need help with that trash, Archie?”

Breathing hard, he stepped back. “No, all good. Let’s go.” He bent down to grab his school bag. “Stay. The fuck. Away from Betty”, he warned the asshole quietly, before joining Reggie and going out into the sun.

He wasn’t sure what had just happened and wasn’t sure yet how he felt about snapping like that.

“Dude - what was that?”

Shaking his hand, he flexed his fingers that already started to throb. He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. He just can’t stop talking bullshit to me about Betty.” Frowning, he glared back, seeing Chuck coming out, slinking away with a towel pressed to his lips, a look of pure hate coming his way. “I don’t get his obsession with me and Betty.”

“Yeah, sure.”

At Reggie’s snort, he turned his frown on his captain. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, Andrews, everyone at school knows she’s your girl and the fastest way to get under your skin is by going after her”, Reggie replied with a shrug.

He stopped, the fingers around the straps of his bag tightening. “Then everyone should pay better attention. She’s my best friend, not my girl. Who has currently a boyfriend, or has ‘everyone’ forgotten that too?”

“Don’t worry, that will pass. Maybe you’ll even appreciate it, most girls get a lot more interesting once they had had their bad boys.” Reggie punched his arm with a dirty grin. “But good girls like Cooper always get to their senses and will end up with us good guys. I suggest you enjoy your freedom as long as it lasts. I’ve noticed things got pretty hot between you and Vixen Veronica the other night. Good for you!”

There were so many things wrong with what Reggie just had said, he didn’t know where to begin. Was that really how the guys on the team saw him and Betty? Did Jughead know what they were saying?

“Reg ...”

“Hey, listen, I need to run. See you later?”

“Wait!”, he stopped him before he jogged away. “Listen, Reggie, can you please keep what happened back there to yourself?”

“Sure, whatever. Consider it forgotten”, Reggie replied unfazed and rushed off, leaving Archie back with a frown.

He really hoped Reggie and Chuck would leave this be.Somehow he couldn’t see either Jughead, Veronica or Betty reacting all too well if word got around to them that he’d given Chuck a lesson of his own over Betty.

* * *

“Vegas!”

But his dog didn’t listen to his exasperated reprimand as he bounded full force past the ball he was supposed to bring Archie back towards his third favorite person in the whole world, greeting her with excessive wagging and a wet, sloppy kiss.

Rolling his eyes, he sat down in his yard, legs stretched out long, and watched as Betty greeted Vegas back as enthusiastically, cuddling him, laughing.

“I’m never sure which one of us he loves more”, he remarked dryly.

As if on cue, Vegas came back to him, still sans ball, to give him a dog kiss too.

“Me, of course”, she replied confidently as she came over to plop down next to him. Vegas happily rolled onto his back between them and she immediately complied, giving his belly a thorough rub. “He knows from whom he gets the good stuff.”

“Yeah, you always bribe him shamelessly”, he agreed with a smirk, that earned him a tongue. He raised his eyebrow. “What? Are we five again?”

She shrugged. “I dunno. How old are we when we pummel other boys in the locker room?”

Sighing, he leaned back onto his elbows. “Reggie is the worst tattle-tale I’ve ever met.”

Leaning down to muzzle Vegas’ head and floppy ears, Betty shot him a look from under her eyelashes. “Please, give me some credit: Exhibit A: Chuck sportinga split lip no where near where Jug got him. Exhibit B: Chuck glaring at you all day as if you banged his mom.” He grimaced at that image, shuddering slightly. No thank you, he’d had his share of older women. Been there, done that. “Exhibit C: One bruised hand”, she concluded, nodding at his hand. “Reggie only confirmed it, because of course I first went to him. He’s such a tattle-tale.”

He watched her stroking lazily through Vegas’ fur and casually crossed his legs. “He asked for it.”

She shot him another look. “Undoubtedly. Doesn’t mean you have to stoop to his level.”

Valid point. But she hadn’t been there. And she hadn’t heard what Chuck had said. “A guy can only remain noble for so long.”

“And this girl doesn’t care what crap a moron like Chuck Clayton spews out”, she pointed out, scratching Vegas’ ears. “Moreover, this girl is well capable of dealing with the likes of a Chuck herself. Seriously, Arch, I don’t need either Jug or you to defend my honor. If I want to, I’m gonna put him in his place. Not Jug. Not you.”

He didn’t doubt that. But she was crazy if she thought he could ever stand by and let anyone treat Betty like that, let alone let him speak about her like he had done. But he wasn’t stupid enough to point that out to her. “Duly noted.”

“Uhuh.” Apparently she knew him better too, because that was all she replied. Giving Vegas a last ruffle and a pat on his flanks, she nudged him over a bit to flip onto her back beside him. “So. I’ve heard your parents are finalizing their divorce?”

Had she? “Now who’s a tattle-tale? Did Jughead tell you?” While he liked having Jughead live with them, he really didn’t want him go running with everything to Betty.

She snorted. “First, he’d never tell me without your consent. Second, no need. I ran into your mom the other day and she told me.”

Oh. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“I’m sorry too”, she said softly.

He sighed. “It’s okay. I guess it was a long time coming. They’ve been separated for almost two years now.”

“Doesn’t mean it still doesn’t hurt. Especially with your parents still getting along so well which you can see now first hand.”

Yeah. It did make it strange, there never had been hard feelings between his parents, they somehow always staying friends first. Then again, after hearing some of the stories from other kids with separated parents, he much preferred it this way. “Mom’s happy in Chicago. And she won’t come back, so I guess it makes sense for them to finalize it. Setting each other free.”

True, he hadn’t made complete peace with it yet. A part of him still held on to his desire to have his mom back home and his parents happy together again. But he was getting there. He was almost fine with it already. Almost.

She was silent. Vegas not liking to be ignored came sniffing at them, his wet nose pushing against his hand. When he gently pushed his head away, he padded over them, laying down over both their legs. She chuckled. Then sighed. “Dad’s still living at the Register. And Mom threw a brick through the door window.”

He glanced at her, but she was looking at the clouds overhead them. Sadly, he knew only too well that that wasn’t a good sign for the relationship of your parents. “Damn. I’m sorry.”

“You know, when Mom kicked him out after learning how he tried to get Polly to do an abortion, I thought it was going to blow over after a while. But she won’t even discuss him and if she says something - it’s not particularly nice.” She bit her lip. “Dad’s not any better. Sometimes I get the feeling he’s relieved even, enjoying his newfound freedom a little bit too much.” Slowly, she turned her head to look at him. “So I’m starting to think he’ll never come back home.”

No, it didn’t sound like it. “That’s big. How are you feeling about it?”

Her eyes cast down. “To be honest, I’m not as upset as I thought I’d be. Which naturally leads to me feeling guilty. Asking myself if it’s my fault. If I hadn’t snooped around and found Polly, helping her turn her back on us, maybe they’d still be together. Maybe if I hadn’t suspected Dad of having killed Jason, he would be more ready to come home. But what father wants to live with a daughter thinking he’s capable of murder?”

He propped himself up onto his elbows to stare at her incredulously, his eyes wide. “What? When did that happen?”

Her cheeks blushed and she glanced at him sheepishly. “Uh ... when someone broke into the office of Kevin’s dad? I noticed Dad hadn’t attended the final show at the drive-in. So I entertained the idea that maybe ...” She sighed. “I know, low point.”

“You may have reread Nancy Drew a few times too many. I always told you reading that much wasn’t healthy”, he pointed out, deciding humor was the best way to go after such a revelation. What a thought to entertain!And once again, not telling him any of this. Well. At least she talked to him now at last. “And don’t get me started with your obsession with that code book of hers.”

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You’ll see, one day it will be my obsession with sleuthing that saves all our lives.”

Maybe. With her, all was possible. Scooting over a bit with his upper torso, he nudged her side. “As for you feeling guilty, let me tell you what you told me when I asked you the same questions back when my parents split: No. No, Betty. They love you, but that doesn’t mean they still love each other. Their relationship is a completely different thing to the one you have with them. One you have only little influence on.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That sounds like bullshit. And you listened to that crap?”

“Oh yeah?”, he replied, with a glint in his eyes. In a flash he moved to kneel over her, his fingers mercilessly attacking her sides.

Squealing, she tried to slap his hands away and push him off her, not having any luck. Even more bad luck for her, contrary to his best friend, he wasn’t ticklish at all, which she knew all too well, not even trying to turn the tables on him, so he continued until she stopped squirming, panting. Giving his fingers and her a rest, he stared down at her, filled with smug. “You were saying?”

“Okay, okay, the wisest of all wise advices. I should never doubt it”, she relented, breathing hard, but her eyes were sparkling again.

“Indeed”, he nodded, not moving. “No one questions the smartness and wisdom of my best friend. Got it?”

“Is that so?” She grinned. “I must get to know that friend of yours. Anyone I know?”

Oh, she was so asking for it. His fingers curling, he launched another attack, getting her back to squealing. But this time, her four-legged hero and protector decided the two of them had had enough fun without him, getting into the mix joyously, always loving a romp in the grass. Archie lost his balance, falling onto Betty, with Vegas jumping on his back, pressing him even more onto Betty.

She gasped. “Uff.”

“Vegas! Get off!”, Archie scolded, bucking, keeping himself upright with his elbows from completely crushing Betty. Looking down, he checked on her. “Sorry.”

But she just giggled, laying completely still beneath him but for the shaking of her laughter.

Vegas got off his back, but somehow, he forgot to roll off her. Actually, he felt quite good just right where he was, watching her enjoy herself like he hadn’t seen in a long time, at least since before Polly being shipped away. Vegas came again, sniffing, licking over both their faces, bringing out only more carefree gurgles from Betty. She caught him watching, and she stilled, still smiling. Her ponytail had loosened in the romp, some of her soft curls having escaped their stern prison, teasing her eyes, making her blink. Without thinking, he caressed them away, something he’d done dozens of times over the years, but never had her hair felt so silky between his fingers.

He couldn’t look away from her.

Until someone cleared his throat. Looking up, he saw his dad leaning against the back door, watching them bemused, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “You kids having fun?”

Finally growing aware that he should probably move, he rolled off Betty to flip down beside her. “Actually, we have.”

“The best”, Betty echoed, sitting up with a wide grin, immediately having a lap full of dog.

His dad nodded, still smiling. “That’s good. Dinner’s almost ready. We’re having pizza. You wanna join us, Betty?”

“You had me at pizza, Mr Andrews”, she replied, glancing at him as if to ask if it was okay with him. He simply raised an eyebrow back, silently asking since when she needed permission to stay over, at least not his. “Thank you, it sounds delicious and I’m starving”, she added.

His dad shook his head. “Thank me by finally remembering to call me Fred. You need to pop over to tell your mom?”

It was her turn to shake her head. “No need, she’s working and already called to say it was probably going to be a long night.”

“Yeah, I noticed that she seemed pretty busy lately. Just remember, kiddo, there’s always a place free at our table”, his dad said and he got the feeling that had been something his dad had wanted to say to Betty for a while.

Her cheeks blushed and she hugged Vegas a little tighter. “Thank you Mr ... Fred.”

“See? It’s not that hard. All right, fifteen minutes, you guys”, his dad reminded them before vanishing inside.

Betty sighed. “I love your dad.”

“Yeah, he’s all right”, he agreed, wondering since when his dad had noticed things not being so great over at the Coopers right now. Or why he hadn’t mentioned something to him about it. Shaking his head, he put those thoughts away and got up, holding a hand out to Betty to drag her up as well, keeping it with a squeeze to get her to look up at him. “To come back to our conversation: give it time, Betty. It’s still early, they may still work it out, especially once they’re both grandparents. And if they don’t, I’m sure it’s going to be all right too.” He nodded to his house where his parents were preparing dinner, happily freshly divorced. “As you can see, it can turn out to be pretty okay.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Thanks, Arch”, she said with a warm smile.

He shrugged and let go of her hand, with a bit more regret than usual, but not letting himself dwell on it or that moment between them just now. Not then, not during dinner, nor afterwards when they all watched the newest American Idol show together, mercilessly commenting every act.

Jughead was staying over with FP that night, so the two of them were alone with his parents and it appeared to Archie that it had been ages since he got to spend any quality time with Betty alone, at least someone always being around. And he found himself minding that. She was his best friend, damn it, weren’t they allowed to have fun together anymore? It wasn’t as if something would happen between them, was it?

But alone in the darkness of his room he had shared not so long ago with Veronica, or still was currently sharing with Jughead for that matter, he didn’t fall asleep for a long time. Not memories of the laszive body of the black-haired vixen literally keeping him up, but the memory of a soft body beneath him squirming with giggles, of sparkling green-blue eyes shining up at him and silky blond hair between his fingers.

And he knew he was fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you enjoyed it! It’s a bit of having them some last, innocent fun, before everything goes sour.  
> Also, I wanted to give Archie some moments where he could be reminded and discovering just why we Barchies are out there and still existing, despite barely having scraps to sustain our favorite ship. But also to have him coming from somewhere when he will soon begin his famous moment where he tells her some part of him always thought ...
> 
> So, there you go, hope you had fun reading this, and that you cherished in, because sadly, it will be a long while for such a light moment between those two happening again.


	5. Strained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Archie made a big mistake. Will it cost him not just one but both his best friends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We tackle here the events of 112, or more specifically how they went from Betty telling Archie and Veronica that she never wanted to talk to them again to then walk to school with Archie in the next episode, talking about how it’s so strange at home. Because they never showed us how they made up, I thought it necessary to add exactly that to this collection of missing scenes.

**5 - Strained (112)**

Hearing Jughead accuse Betty of helping him and Veronica break into FP’s trailer, making her cry, Archie knew he fucked up. Jughead ran away, Betty going after him, surprisingly fast on her heels but not fast enough. Outside, as he vanished into the night, she called after him, so devastatingly it stabbed his heart.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

He stepped forward, touching her arm. “Betty ...”

She jerked her arm away from him, rounding on him, her eyes on fire despite being overflown by tears. “Don’t you touch me!”

“Please, Betts, I swear, I only wanted to help. You ...”, he tried to apologize.

“You used me. Went behind my back. Betrayed Jughead! And he thinks ...” She sobbed. Shaking her head over and over again, she backed away from him. “I need to find him.”

“I’m coming with you”, he said immediately, stepping forward.

One seething glare from her and he stopped in his tracks. “The hell you are. You’ve done enough. Don’t you dare following me.”

She turned around and ran away, without a single glance back. He stared after her, lost, his hands balled to fists.

“Archie, it will be all right. They’ll come around.”

“You think that, you don’t know Betty very well”, he replied bitterly, not looking at Veronica. Jughead maybe, depending on what was going to happen next, but Betty could hold a grudge worse than the Grinch.

Damn it! He should have listened to his first instinct when Veronica had asked him to help her break into FP’s trailer! Why hadn’t he just listened? Turning around, he marched into the opposite direction Betty had run to, his heart screaming.

“Where are you going?”, Veronica asked, hurrying after him.

“Figure this out. Find Jughead”, he told her shortly.

“I’m coming with you.”

He stopped to look at her darkly. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Please! I know I started this mess. I may not know Jughead that well, but B is my girl and the last thing I wanted was for her to get hurt by what we did. Just let me try to help fix this, Archie”, she pleaded, her dark eyes nothing but serious.

He still hesitated, part of him still blaming her. Not as much though as he blamed himself. She was too new here, she couldn’t completely understand just how wrong what they’d done had been. But he knew better and he went along with it anyway, risk losing not just one but both his best friends, no matter how good his intentions had been. She deserved a chance to make it right again.

“Okay, come on.”

* * *

“I’m not talking to you - either of you - ever again.”

He couldn’t get Betty’s words out of his mind, they kept echoing through his soul, leaving it in shreds.

She had meant every word, he knew that. Heard it in the finality of her voice. Saw it in the way she had looked him straight in the eyes, with an indifference he’d never seen there. He’d have preferred anger, or hate, or hurt, anything but that. With emotions, he could maybe work himself back into her good graces, but her simply scratching him out of her life, like he was a stranger not worth looking at twice instead of her best friend for twelve years ... He had no idea how to break through that, get her to forgive him.

She had listened to them once they told her it was about Jughead, had let them come with her to their parents when he suggested telling his dad, but all the time he’d felt this strange coldness coming from her, and it slowly froze his heart bit by bit. Not once could he remember a time when being near her hadn’t warmed his entire being. To have lost it ... He didn’t know something could hurt so much without being physically hurt.

Of course he was worried sick about Jughead too. The look of betrayal on his face when he’d confessed he and Veronica had searched his home ... Then the pain and devastation when their parents told them FP had been arrested ... That too had felt like stabs to his heart.

But Betty’s cold indifference was so much worse and as he once again laid alone in the darkness of his room, it was her face as she said those horrible words that stuck in his mind, repeating over and over again.

He needed to fix this. He needed to find Jughead and make him understand he’d done it to protect him, not hurt him. And God, he needed to get Betty to forgive him. To let him back in.

Sadly, he had no idea how to do that.

His phone pinged. Seeing Betty’s name on the screen, he held his breath, sitting up immediately.

‘Arch, I’m worried about Jughead.’

He didn’t know what he’d expected. Either way, he felt an iota more hope of being able to kit their friendship back together now than a minute ago. And maybe, he could kill two flies with one act of friendship. His fingers flew over the screen as he answered. ‘Me too. Let’s go find him.’

He was up and throwing on clothes without waiting for her response. They met outside. “Let’s check the trailer again”, she suggested right away. “I went there before coming to Pop’s but he wasn’t there. I do think though he’d been there, the police band was thrown off. But maybe he went back, thinking now it’s safe there.”

“I dunno. I don’t think he’d want to stay there”, Archie disagreed.

“What then? That closet at school he stayed in before he moved in with you guys?”

Maybe. But he didn’t think so. Looking back to his house, he frowned. Something was nagging him ... His eyes widened. “Come”, he told her, grabbing her hand and dragging her with him to his garage.

“What are you doing? He’s not in your garage.”

“I know, but it’s about what else isn’t there”, he said, letting go of her hand to open the garage door. Flipping on the light, he went to the couch Jughead had slept on sometimes. Damn. “Betty, his duffle bag is gone.”

“What? But ...” She stared at him. “What does that mean?”, she asked, her voice small.

“I think he wants to skip town”, he replied, staring at the empty couch. God, what had he done? If something happened to him or he’d never come back ...

“Skip town?”, she repeated, shaking her head. “No! He can’t leave me like that!”

He looked up, turning around, determined. “He won’t. Come. Maybe we can still catch him.”

She breathed raggedly. “The bus station!”

He nodded.

* * *

Archie tried the door to the bus station, but it was locked and no Jughead anywhere. Frustrated, he turned to Betty. “From what he said in the hall, it seems he wants to get to his mom in Ohio.”

She was checking her phone for the millionth time. “Anything?”, he asked hopefully.

“No”, she answered shortly, her worry palpable.

“Maybe his phone died”, he offered, anything to sooth her down.

She threw him a scalding glare. “Or maybe the only friends he has just completely betrayed him.”

He cringed, but before he had a chance to say anything in return, his phone rang. “Is that him?”, she asked eagerly.

“No, it’s Veronica”, he reluctantly disappointed her as he took the call, explaining as briefly as he could what they were doing. At her suggestion where to look next, he felt hope flare up. Quickly thanking her and ending the call, he turned to Betty. “Veronica thinks he may be at Pop’s, it being the only place open 24 hours in Riverdale.”

It was worth a shot. Betty took a deep breath before nodding, turning towards Pop’s. Hands buried deep into the pockets of his jacked, he fell into steps beside her. “Betty ...”

“No. We’re not talking. We’re here to find Jughead, nothing else matters”, she shot him down on the spot.

His jaw clenched. One second. Two seconds. Three. “I’m sorry, okay!”, he exploded. “You really think I did it to hurt Juggie or you? I thought it would help - turns out it did or we wouldn’t know FP was framed.”

She stopped walking, rounding on him. “Seriously? That’s your excuse now? God, you are unbelievable!”

“What did you expect me to do? I tried talking to Juggie about FP, but he was so happy about how he was doing, how interested he had been in Jughead’s book he’s writing about Jason’s murder. He told me he wanted to move back in with FP! I had to make sure it was safe for him to go back, Betty!”

“So you go break into his home? Taking along a girl he hardly knows, so she can snoop around too in order to exonerate her criminal father currently sitting in jail?”, Betty shot back, seething.

Put like that, it did sound like a bad idea. “I didn’t say it was a great idea, but I stand by me having to do something. And Veronica would have gone with or without me. I thought it’s better I went too, because yeah, contrary to her I was there to make sure FP didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Jason.”

She snorted. “Right, once again, Archie Andrews does what he thinks is right, not pausing for one fucking second before rushing ahead, not thinking twice about how it might affect others.”

“That’s not fair. I tried to help, damn it! Okay, was it my best idea ever? Definitely not. Am I sorry? Hell yeah. Still, I had to do something!”

“Then why not come to me?”, she practically screamed. “Together, or even better between the three of us, we might have figured it out or could have talked with FP or something, anything else but go behind both our backs.”

“Exactly! You would have wanted to go straight to Jug or go confront FP, like you would have done with Sheriff Keller or even your own father.” He stepped forward to glare down at her. “But what if he did it, Betty? No offense, but Juggie was my best friend a long time before he became your boyfriend. Contrary to you I know FP pretty well. While I don’t want to believe he’s done it - I do believe he could have. He can be dangerous, especially when he’s drunk. Or feels threatened. So what if he did it? You really want Jughead to have to turn in his own dad? Would you want to do that? And if we’d gone to FP without Jug, and he’d already shot Jason point blank, you think he’d have stopped there and not done the same to us? To you?”

She narrowed her eyes. “So what? Now you did it to protect me too? You nearly blow my relationship with Jughead up, but it was all just to protect him and me?” She laughed sarcastically. “That’s rich.”

“I always try to protect you!”, he told her. “And Jughead And Veronica too. Do I always do it the right way? Maybe not. But you can’t deny that that’s where I’m coming from, always.”

“Newsflash, Archie, I don’t need your protection. Jughead’s the son of the Serpent king. Believe me, he doesn’t either. Veronica is most likely a mob princess, she too can look after herself. And at a certain point, where you come from doesn’t matter when the harm you do by your actions is greater than what you tried to prevent with those actions.” She pressed her hands over her heart. “Case in point.”

Turning away from him, she stomped away. Hanging his head, he followed her. So far, his mission to get Betty to forgive him was clearly doomed to fail.

* * *

They found Jughead. They proved FP had been framed. They even found a video showing how Clifford Blossom shot his own son. Unfortunately, it also led to FP’s confession of getting rid of evidence and Jason’s body, having him face some serious jail time. Leaving Jughead with nowhere to go, social services breathing down his neck. His mom left for Chicago.

And Betty Cooper still hardly talked or even looked at him.

He had hoped she’d started to forgive him as they had worked together in order to help clear FP’s name, but the minute it was over, she’d been back to leave him out in the doghouse.

To sum it up, his life sucked.

He was up in his room, trying to deal with all the shit he’d seen since the dance. Hell, pretty much since 4th of July, really.

Suddenly, on the wall opposite him two short bursts of light flashed up. Holding his breath, he stared, waited, desperately hoping his mind hadn’t played any tricks on him.

Two other short bursts of light.

Yes! He was up in a flash, moving to his window, his heart beating fast with hope. Betty stood by her window. When she saw him appear, she made their adaption of the timeout sign, but with the upper hand forming a roof instead of a line. Then she disappeared, the lights in her room going dark.

The treehouse.

Thankfully, he hadn’t changed for the night yet, so he only had to throw on his sneakers and grab his jacket before making his way down the stairs quietly. He slipped out through the backyard door, making his way to the back of the yard to the tree where he and his dad had build a treehouse for him and Betty when they had been seven or so. Climbing up with ease, he moved his lanky body through the trap door and peeled inside. His dad had made the treehouse pretty big, perhaps because he’d wanted them to fit in even when they were grown up, still, it was a snug fit nowadays.

Betty was already sitting in the back, hugging her knees to her chest. Their old lantern flickering slightly, but filling the treehouse with enough light to be able to see each other. He pulled up the flap to not let more cold winter night air in and sat facing her with crossed legs.

“Hey”, he greeted her tentatively.

She didn’t greet back immediately, but eventually she did, a bit stiffly. “Hi.”

Silence engulfed them, not a comfortable one. Fidgeting, his fingers started to drum a nervous rhythm on his knee. Of course it was him who broke the silence. He’d never been good at the whole silent game. Or the waiting game. “So ... You wanted to talk?”

She cut him a look. “I’m thinking about talking to you.”

Oh. Well, he guessed it was a tiny step into the right direction. “Okay.”

So silence it was again. Moving back, he leaned his back against the hardwood, stretching his legs, making himself more comfortable while he waited.

And wait he did. But for once in his life, he kept his mouth shut, letting her work through whatever she needed to in order to start talking. If it got him Betty back, he’d never speak a word again until she told him to.

“Jughead told me he forgave you”, she finally said after what had to be the longest twenty, thirty minutes of his life.

“Yeah, we talked”, Archie confirmed, glad at least one of his best friends had shown him a little mercy and cleared the air between them. “Because, you know, that’s what friends do. They talk. Especially after they fought”, he couldn’t stop himself from pointing out.

Another very unfriendly look. “Remains to be seen if we are still friends. Or rather if we still can be friends.”

He flinched, his breath knocked out of him. “Betty ...”, he whispered.

“Come on, Archie, you have to see it too. Our track record since summer isn’t particularly great. Maybe it’s time we face the possibility that our friendship could only exist while we were kids”, she said and it was less the words, that were hurtful enough on their own, than the matter of fact way she said them that had him losing the ground beneath his feet.

“No, no, no”, he protested, leaning forward. “No, Betty. The hell it isn’t.”

“Isn’t it?”, she asked, searching his eyes for he didn’t know what.

“No”, he confirmed with all the conviction he could muster up. “Look, I know we made a lot of mistakes this past year, but you’re still one of the three most important persons in my life, alongside my parents. I don’t want to lose you and our friendship. I love you, Betty.”

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. “You broke my heart twice in less than a year, Arch. First by not wanting me and then by going behind my back to make Jughead believe I betrayed him. All in the name of loving and wanting to protect me. I’m tired of getting my heart broken by you, Archie.”

His eyes stung and he swallowed. Crawling forward, he tentatively covered her hands on her knees with his own. She didn’t jerk away. He took it as an encouraging sign to continue. “Please look at me, Betty.”

She complied.

“Do you believe that I love you?”, he asked, desperately.

She sighed, but nodded.

So far so hopeful. “Do you believe me when I tell you the last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you? You of all people?”

Again she sighed, but again she nodded too.

“Do you believe that I’m so, so sorry you got hurt anyway? And for neglecting our friendship this year? For not telling you everything I should have told you? For not having been there when you needed me?”, he asked, his voice sounding small to his own ears.

She looked down, but she nodded.

“I know a lot things changed since last summer. I think we both still need to figure out how to adapt to there being more people around now than just the two of us anymore. But, please Betty, give us the chance to work it out. Don’t just throw me and our beautiful friendship of twelve years away, not if there is still a part of you that loves me and what we have”, he begged. Biting his lips, he searched her eyes. That was the billion dollars question, wasn’t it? “Do you?”

Looking up, she looked him straight into his eyes, not answering for way too long. And when she finally did, it wasn’t what he’d expected at all. “Jughead also told me how you fought with your dad to let him stay with you guys while FP is in jail.”

He frowned. “Yeah. Of course. I just wish I could have convinced my dad. But I’ll continue to try.”

She slowly nodded. “Yeah. Of course.” She closed her eyes again. When she opened them to look back at him, there was determination in them, telling him she’d made her decision. Time seemed to stop for him. “Okay.”

“Okay?”,he repeated, confused, when she didn’t elaborate.

“Okay”, she told him again, firm. “We’ll try this again.”

“We do?” It was what he’d fought for, but he didn’t trust it yet. It for sure didn’t sound very endorsing.

“Well ...” She turned her hands to slip her fingers between his. Looking at them, she sighed. “I still love you too. Heaven knows why. I know you’re a kind guy at core, with a golden heart. I do believe you when you say you didn’t want to hurt anyone. So no, I’m not ready yet to give up on what we have. But Archie, please: you’ve got to act less on every impulse you have and think things through more. I wasn’t kidding: I am truly tired of always getting hurt in the process of you figuring things out for yourself.” She lifted her eyes to meet his again. “Truth is, I’m getting stretched out a bit here, Arch. Polly carrying twins from her cousin, me being a Blossom, the murder investigation leading to my newfound cousin being killed by his own father - another relative of mine. My parents splitting, my boyfriend’s father getting arrested, this brewing hostility against everything Southside, the craziness of sophomore year in general ...” Her fingers curled tightly around his, and she took a shuddering breath. “It’s all getting a bit too much, okay Archie? Right now I need you to have my back - not loading up on it all. Or flooring me like you have done with your stunt. You hear me?”

If possible, he felt even more like crap as he had before. Betty was always the one with a plan of action. She was always the one knowing what to do or in the rare case she didn’t, she at least knew where to get help. She was always the strong one. To hear the vulnerability in her voice as she admitted all of it getting too much for her, both occurrences being of the very rare kind, he wanted to kick himself for not even thinking about how she was dealing with all this shit.

Pulling her into his arms without a second thought, he pressed her head to his shoulder. “I hear you, Betts. I hear you. And I’m here for you, always, you know that, right? I’m sorry I didn’t show that enough these past months. I’m sorry I didn’t see myself how this all must have affected you.” His voice got thick and he held her tighter. “I’m sorry I have to say I’m sorry to you so damn often lately.”

“You’re not the only one”, she replied, her voice muffled. “I made mistakes too. I definitely should have talked more to you than I have. I’m sorry too.”

Normally, he would probably have laughed at the sorry state of them, but he didn’t feel like laughing. “We didn’t have time yet to talk about that family twist your dad sprung on you guys. How’s Polly taking it? How are you doing?”

She sighed. “Can we please not talk about it right now? I know it sounds hypocritical of me after my speech just now, but all we talk at home is Blossom DNA and incest. Not that I had time to process any of it yet. So can we please just postpone this particular conversation?”

“Sure”, he simply replied, knowing she needed to first wrap her head around it herself before she was ready to talk about it. But he kept her engulfed in his arms, having no intention to let her slip out of them anytime soon. “Just promise me you’ll talk to someone once you’re ready. Me, Juggie, Kevin, I don’t care, just please, don’t try to deal with all of this on your own.”

Because she had an unhealthy tendency to bottle things up, her scarred palms the best proof of that. They’d never talked about that fucking habit of hers, him playing along and pretending he didn’t saw the crescent formed scars on her palms. Oh, she was way too good at hiding it, sure, especially for them being somewhere so easily visible, but he’d been up close and personal with her on almost a daily basis for the better part of twelve years. Of course he knew.

“I will”, she promised.

Too easily. But he let it go, making a mental note to follow up on that in a couple of weeks if she hadn’t talked to him by then.

The winter night air was getting really cold, but neither of them moved. “We could stay the night, like in old times”, he suggested, only half joking.

“You mean back when it wasn’t below zero degrees outside and Mom hadn’t been worried yet about us getting the wrong ideas, forbidding any sleepovers?”, she replied dryly.

He grimaced, still holding a grudge with Mrs Cooper and for that matter his mom too for putting an end to their frequent sleepovers growing up. Not that they never had sneaked out to snuggle together here in the treehouse or in other places, at least until suddenly their bodies began to change a bit too much, nature making something weird that up until then had been the most natural thing for both of them. So they themselves had put a stop to it. A decision they made mutually, without ever talking about it.

“I miss that. This. Us”, he reflected, absentmindedly playing with a lock of her hair.

“Me too”, she murmured, her voice getting heavy and sleepy.

She had to be exhausted. He was too, but he didn’t feel like sleeping at all. “Time to decide, Sleepyhead. Stay or back to bed?”

“Let’s stay a while longer”, she yawned, curling up against him.

She was going to be fast asleep within minutes, but he was more than happy to not point that out to her. “Sure”, he answered, casually. Sliding down a bit, he positioned himself more comfortably, slipping out of his jacket to drape it over the both of them. At last he pulled her back against him. “Better?”

She nodded. “Walk me to school tomorrow?”, she asked softly.

“Anytime”, he gladly agreed, their last walk to school together being way too long ago.

“Thanks, Arch.”

He’d been right, not five minutes later she had succumbed to her exhaustion, being fast asleep all snuggled up to him.

Sleep though was the last thing on his mind as he laid there in their childhood home away from home with Betty sleeping in his arms.

He loved this girl, there was no doubt about that, never had been. But ... What kind of love was it? Jughead was his best friend too, he loved him too, but that love had never, ever been anything close to the pure and consuming love he’d felt for the girl currently sleeping in his arms. The thought of losing Jughead was terrible. But the thought of losing Betty was not only unimaginable, it was unbearable.

His fingers stroked through her hair, wrapping a lock of her hair around one. And there was her silky hair. Her sparkling eyes, her soft but still so strong body.

He never mused about Jughead’s hair and eyes and body.

So was it more than just the love between friends, best friends even?

Then again, he never lusted after Betty like he did after Veronica and before her other girls. He lost his virginity to a teacher he barely knew rather to the girl he knew had been waiting to lose hers to him. A girl he’d proposed to at only eight years old. A girl he’d shared his first and second and third kiss with.

But then why hadn’t he been able to wait for her? Why had he broken her heart rather than given them a try? He had loved her then, just like he loved her now.

So why, after all this drama, after her turning to his best friend for what he couldn’t give her - why couldn’t he all of a sudden not stop thinking about her being more than his best friend? Stop wondering how it would be to have her as his girlfriend after all?

Why couldn’t he stop asking himself if he’d made the biggest mistake of his life beginning this year when he’d turned her down after she’d offered him everything he was now wishing to explore all of a sudden?

His arm around her waist pulled her closer, as if the thought alone could somehow whisk her away from him forever.

That was the crux of it all, wasn’t it? The only thing he really knew was that he loved her and couldn’t live without her in his life. But what was the bigger threat to exactly that happening in the end? Them remaining the friends they were, with the risk of losing each other while their hearts turned to other people, causing them to slowly but surely drift apart like they had this year? Or them giving a relationship a shot after all, risking to break each other hearts, tearing them apart irrevocably?

He didn’t know. And that scared the shit out of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos and comments left for the last chapter.  
> I have to admit, I had this chapter ready for a while already, but because the next one isn’t ready yet, I’ve waited so far. Full disclosure, I’m not sure yet how to continue here. I actually already have a handful of chapters ready for this one, but all but one they are all from season 3, the ones for season 2 that I have in mind still missing. I thought of skipping them altogether, then again, you all know what wonderful scenes happened in the first half of the second season. It doesn’t feel right to just skip them in this Barchie-centered collection of missing scenes. On the other hand, that’s just why those episodes have been covered quite often in fanfiction and I’m not sure I can add something new to the pool ...  
> Sigh. We’ll see. For now here we are, I hope you enjoyed this expand on 112 and I hope to have more for you soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I didn’t start with the first ep as I feel like it will be mentioned enough as it is. After rewatching the first season, my little barchie-craving-soul fired up by 415-418 wanting to check some things out I had in mind for another story, I found so many missing moments I’d have loved to have. I feel like we’re only told time and time again how Betty and Archie are best friends, but there are actually hardly any moments where they actually show it, so well, what else to do than write them myself?  
> I hope you liked it! More is coming soon.


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